Tiger tale: Life in the territory of fear in Andhra Pradesh Premium

Explore the human-tiger conflict in Andhra Pradesh, impacting farmers' livelihoods as a rogue tiger disrupts local agriculture.

Lying snug to the Kannapuram Forest Range, Dippakayalapadu in Koyyalagudem mandal of Eluru district is a small village where tobacco fields stretch as far as eyes can reach. January-February is the harvesting season of the crop, usually marked by feverish activities in barns as local farmers hire agricultural workers from Guntur, Prakasam and even from Maharashtra and Telangana for the curing of tabacco leaves.

In the last week of January, however, the fields fell suddenly silent, conspicuous only by a skeletal crew of workers going about their work, nervousness heavy on their faces. The reason: there was a tiger in the neighbourhood, a sub-adult male of four years that began killing cattle in the region since January 22.

A native of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, it was sighted for the first time in Andhra Pradesh near Pandirimamidigudem of Eluru district around January 20-21. A week later, in the early hours of January 26, the big cat killed a buffalo in the oil palm grove belonging to Vivekananda Kakarla at Billimilli village near Dippakayalapdu. Two hours later, between 5 and 6 a.m., the tiger attacked two cows in the tobacco field of 58-year-old farmer Geda Satyanarayana at Dippakayalapadu, killing one and injuring another. The back-to-back killings kicked off a maelstrom of panic among the villagers and confusion among forest officials regarding the animal’s strange behaviour.

Eluru District Forest Officer, Territorial, P.V. Sandeep Reddy says that while winter is considered the season for young tiger dispersal, what is peculiar is that this particular big cat killed an average two heads of cattle every night over the past two weeks — 14 in Eluru district and six in East Godavari district. While the frequent cattle depredation was a puzzle to the Forest officials, it was a crushing blow to dairy farmers.

A cow that was injured in a tiger attack at Dippakayalapadu village in Koyyalagudem mandal of Eluru district. The incident occurred when the animal was grazing near agricultural fields close to the forest area. | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao

As of Thursday (February 5), the tiger was wandering around Rajamahendravaram city outskirts. It is believed to have left its native habitat with another male tiger on December 14, 2025. Currently, around 100 forest officials are monitoring its movements, with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) having constituted a committee to decide on whether to tranquilise it.